I remember when my parents first bought a computer. It was back in 2000, and I was excited as hell, if only because it meant I'd get to play games on it. I had never owned those nintendo/sega cartridge type game systems. I'd played on them at friends' places, and at those game shops, but now I was finally going to have a place to play video games on my own. These were exciting times.Back then, I remember that PC came preloaded with a demo version of Road Rash(epic game btw) and a demo version of Need for Speed: High Stakes. I played those two demos to death.
Then someone gave me Wolfenstein 3d ( in a floppy disk no less!) and so I was introduced to the First Person Shooter genre. Now Wolf ( as it was affectionately called) was a pretty old game even then, but that didn't make it any less of a completely, stupendously awesome game, so addictive, I remember I used to have arguments with my mother about the time I spent playing it.
I was enamored so completely with the game that I think it had a profound affect on what types of computer games I would like in the future.
So this post, I've decided, is going to be about the best FPS games I've ever played.
The list is in no specific order, but the very best shooters I've ever played (apart from Wolf, obviously) are,
QUAKE III ARENA - 1999 - Conceived as primarily a multiplayer FPS, this amazing AMAZING game featured a single player mode which had bots as opponents in a campaign through all of the brilliant maps that it had. The graphics engine was way ahead of its time, and the high flying, space jumping, super awesome maps made killing hours of time at a stretch immensely fun. I still remember the brutal satisfaction you felt when you fragged Xaero from across the map with a rail gun. (If you haven't played it, Xaero was the hardest bot in the game... I hated him.)
HALF LIFE - 2001 - Generally regarded as the best FPS game ever made, this sci-fi extravaganza is one hell of a ride, through time, space and the Black Mesa project. This was the first game I ever played which had such a detailed, such an intricate, and highly interesting storyline...what would have made a great movie in fact.
Who wouldn't remember the first time they brought down an apache chopper with a machine gun! Gordon Freeman, the game's protagonist is a legend in gaming circles. Definitely one of my favorite games ever. It was relaunched as Half Life:Source, modified to fit into the source engine that valve created later, making it graphically a bit prettier. But kicks ass any day any how.
HALF LIFE 2 - 2004 - No one thought that Valve could match their previous effort when Half Life's sequel was announced, but Half Life 2 blew the world away.
An indicator as to how amazing this game really is, is that the first time I played this was in 2007, and it was still the best looking game I had ever played.
The story, the narration, the action, the setting, the mood...everything was PERFECT, to say nothing of the spectacular graphics. It's also one of the more frightening games that I've played, with the 'We don't go to Ravenholm' chapter especially intense. It's been awarded the 'Game of the Decade' by several gaming publications. If you haven't played it yet, I strongly suggest you do.
FAR CRY - 2004 - Crytek Studios was almost a completely unknown game developer before Far Cry came out in 2004. After 2004, Crytek Studios was widely regarded as one of the foremost game developers in the world. Far Cry is, only one word for it, epic...on an EPIC scale!
This game revolutionized the way developers would make FPS games in the future. The true predecessor of Crysis, this beautiful game puts you on a tropical island. With no idea where you are, or what this place is, you gradually uncover a very interesting plot, marked by amazingly intense fire fights, beautiful tropical settings, a completely open world with highly non-linear gameplay. This game too, is one that will give you the creeps if you play it with the lights off and the
volume up on high. This too, I played in 2007, a long time after it came out, but I could play it today, and it would remain the game I'd recommend the most.
It's sequel though, Far Cry 2, was a huge disappointment.
CALL OF DUTY 4:MODERN WARFARE - 2007 - Call of Duty was a World War 2 FPS franchise before Modern Warfare came out, and though that genre had its merits, it had become stale. So Infinity Ward, the developers, reinvented themselves and came out with an exceptionally brilliant game. Almost everyone I know, who's only even a marginal FPS player has played at least the single player campaign of COD4. The multi player though, oh my god the multi player mode in Modern Warfare is the best thing about it. So maddeningly addictive, my friends and I, on average, spend about 12 hours a week going crazy with LAN parties at my place. With a rather affecting story line, COD4 is definitely one of the best FPS games to play, if you have a marginally good computer system.
BLACK(PS2) - 2006 - The only exception in this list of PC FPS games, this one is only on the Playstation 2 and XBox. Criterion Games, the pioneer of the Burnout series went crazy with this tremendously fun and graphically beautiful console FPS. It did "for shooting what Burnout did for racing - tear it apart". The main pull of this game is that everything...EVERYTHING is destructible.
You shoot a wall hard enough, it'll crumble...you shoot an RPG at the base of a pillared building, the pillars will fall, as will the rest of the building. It's spectacular! The gun design is so amazingly cool, you'd play it just to fire a few of the weapons in the air.
This game deserved a mention, if only for how well it's designed. The campaign should have been longer, and the lack of multi player made it a short, but a very exhilarating ride.
CRYSIS - 2008 - Crysis is regarded as a preview of what FPS gaming will look like in a few years. If that's true, I'm excited. The true successor of Far Cry, Crytek Studios once again showed the world what their CryEngine technology is capable of. Way ahead of its time, in my opinion, Crysis' biggest strength, and
ironically its major weakness is that it requires one hell of a monster PC to run at full capacity.
This extremely steep hardware requirement has caused a large proportion of the gaming population to miss out on it initially. My core i7, 1 gig graphics and seemingly enough RAM do not stop this game from causing my processor to throttle like mad if I run it on the highest settings.
Again, open ended game play like Far Cry, make this a very addictive FPS.
Other honorable mentions must include - Call of Duty 6: Modern Warfare 2, Unreal Tournament 2004, Left 4 Dead, Battlefield: Bad Company 2...and some others which I don't really remember, but then that also means they don't deserve to be included.
This list, by no means complete, makes for probably the most nerdy nerd post I've ever put up, but I don't care.
I'm awaiting with baited breath the release of what I hope will be three amazing games that I'll have to add to my list soon... Crysis 2, Call of Duty 7: Black Ops and Medal of Honor.
I sincerely hope they turn out to be atleast half as good as some of the games I've mentioned above, which would still make them extraordinary.
"Rise and shine, Mr.Freeman. Rise...and shine."
